Roast Chicken with Lemon & Dill | JC100 – Week 8

It’s hard to believe we are already on week eight of the Julia Child celebration. This week’s French cooking assignment was a roasted chicken. Like Bob & I’s other posts, we wanted to jazz things up a bit so we did a lemon dill roasted chicken. Is it possible to ever go wrong with lemon and dill?! This chicken was moist, full of flavour and easy to make! Let’s get to the recipe so you can start cooking it too!

Pre-heat your oven to 425°F. Start out by washing your chicken quickly under hot water. Pat dry and place on cutting board to prep the chicken. In a roasting pan, cut onion into thick rings and place onto pan (this allows the chicken to rest on top and not burn on the bottom). Pour the wine and chicken broth into the pan, over the onions. Prep your chicken by rubbing 1/2 a lemon over the skin. Cut the lemon half into quarters and place into the cavity of the chicken, along with a few onion rings and the sprigs of dill.

Lightly coat the outside of the chicken with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once the outside of the chicken has been prepped, it’s time to brown the skin – place the chicken into your 425°F oven for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes is done, turn down your heat to 350°F and quickly baste your chicken. Continue to baste the chicken every 8-10 minutes for the remaining hour until the breast meat temperature is 165-170°F.

For the gravy, dice 1/4 cup white onion, 3-4 tbsp dill, 1 tsp minced garlic, juice of half a lemon and the left over basting sauce from your chicken in a sauce pan. Be sure to set aside 2 tsp of the basting sauce to mix in 2 tbsp of cornstarch to thicken up your gravy (this prevents the lumping of the cornstarch in the gravy). Whisk the gravy over a medium heat until smooth. Pour onto a plate, serve your chicken and enjoy!